Railway journal bearing



J. J. HENNESSY RAILWAY JOURNAL BEARING April 6, 1948.

Filed July 5, 194-3 INVEN'IOR. msaazmassv ATTQRNBY Patented Apr. 6, 1948UNITE-D STATES PATENT OFFICE RAILWAY JOURNAL BEARING- James-J. Hennessy,Montclair, J.

Application July 3, 1943, swarm); 493,402-

(01. sas -s) 7 Claims; 1-

Thls invention relates to the lubrication of railway axle journals andmore particularly to locomotive driver axle journals equipped with acellar beneath the journal and with a device for pumping lubricant tothe journal, and the invention consists in structure for preventingtheloss of surplus oil pumped to the journal by recapturing it andreturning it to the cellar.

The invention relates more particularly to improvements upon the bearingconstruction disclosed in my Patent No. 2,293,295, issued August 18,1942.

Mechanical lubricators of the class described may comprise a pumpac'tuatedby the play of the axle back and forth in the journal box andusually such a pump is arranged to feed an-adeduat'e supply of lubricantto the journal under unfavorable conditions such as low temperature,slow" movement of thelocomotive,.c1ose fit of the axle box to the wheelhubs with resulting relatively small play of the axle back and forth inthe journal box. Hence, when" the conditions are more favorable forpumping lubricant to' the journal, as in' warm weather and whe'n thereis greaterplay between the parts, there will be an excess amount ofIub'rieant supplied and the excess lubricant tends to travellongitudinally of the journal beyond the bearing) and to escapetheaccompanyingdrawings in which-- Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinalsection through a locomotive axle box and bearing witha mechanicallubricator applied thereto and" showing the axle journal and adjacentportion of the wheel hub.

Figure 21s an end viewof the'box and cellar with aportion of the bearingand journal" sentioned, the line" of view being taken approximately'o'nline 2'-=2of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged detailed isometric view of the adjacent portionsof the box, brass, cellar and associated elements, the box and brassbeing sectioned horizontally to more clearly illustrate theconstruction.

The wheel axle is indicated as being: provided with th'e journal portion2 and mounts the'driv 2'. ing wl'leell the" hub of which is indicated at3".

The axle box top wall t and side walls I are recessed to recei-vethejournal bearing 5, which fits around the upper portion of the journaland the downwardly facing longitudinal edges so of which are seated uponupwardly facing ledges 6 in the box sidewalls I. A" plate 4h extendsbetween: side walls 1' and supports the lubricating device whichincludes a lubricant cellar having}- a bottom wall' 8, side walls 9,front end wall It and a rear end wall (not shown).

The outer end of bearing 5 is recessed as indi-' cated at l3', the'innerend W of therecess being disposed inwardly from the plane of cellar endwall N]. The outer end of the recess, which corresponds to the outer endof the bearing, projects outwardly beyond" said plane. This" generalarrangement orhearing recess and cellar end wall is disclosed in theabove-mentioned patent and in my Patents No. 2,107,413; issued February8, 1938, and No. 2,191,468, issued February 2-7 1940i Bearing 5 is:provided with a transverse groove 2e spaced inwardly from recess [3 andcooperat-ing with recess l3 to form a rib 2i". Near each lower forwardcomer of the bearing, rib 21' and theperipheral face of recess [3' aregrooved,- as indicated at 22 and 23; to provide one or" more downwardlyand inwardly extending channel's; theinner ends of which'm'erg'e withgroove 20.

The bottom of the lowermost groove 23 (o'r'the only groove if but onegroove is provided) extends outwardly to the journanenganng fa'ceo'f thebearing to form an upwardly facing ledge 24 adapted to" wipe surplus oilfrom the adjacentportion of the'bearing and to returnsuch surplus oiland other o-ilwhi'ch' may'have been trapped in groove 23ba'ck to thelower-portion oi transverse groove at the bottom of the" bearing whereit will be discharged to the space below thebeariiig and returned to thecellar forrecircuiation. The corner formed by ledge 24 and the outerface 25 of the bearing is bevelled downwardly and outwardly" asindic'ated at 25 to direct arelatively small amount of lubricantto theouterfac'eofith'e' bearing to lubricate the same and the opposing faceofthewheel hub r (Figure l Preferably, each driving- 156K side wan T is"re cesse-tl' to provide a; downwardly racing ledge i=2 overlying theupper edge of the corresponding cellar sidewall 9.- Welded or otherwisesdured' to'ledge 1 2 is a member l5 forming a" depending lip overlappingthe inner face: of the adjacent cellar sidewall 91 Theforward end ofmember I5 extends beyond the cellar end wall Hi andforms an upwardlyfacing trough l6 having a bottom inclined downwardly and rearwardly fromthe extreme end of the member.

Lubricant between the journal and the bearing and' moving towards thefront end of the bearing will be trapped, at least in part, by groove 20and drained down to the cellar. That portion of the lubricant whichfeeds past rib 2| will tend to form a peripheral ring on the projectingportion of the journal and will be thrown off in drops against theperipheral face of recess [3 and run down the same until it encounterschannels 22 and 23 which tend to drain it back to groove 2! but a slightamount will be deflected forwardly by the bevelled surface 25 tolubricate the hub face and the opposing surface of the bearing and box.Any lubricant flowing over channels 22 or discharged directly to thatportion of the recess located inwardly of the cellar end wall l andbelow channels 22 will drain its lubricant oil into the cellar over thefiat portion of member 85, but some of the lubricant will tend to traveltowards the outer end of recess l3 and ordinarily would escape betweenthe wheel hub and the hub face of the box and cellar. The trough portion[6 of member i intercepts such oil and drains it back into the cellar.This function of trough It is facilitated by the insertion of a fillerelement l'l extending from the forward face I8 of the axle box to thewheel hub and from the upper edge of the projecting portion of elementl5 to the plane of ledge B where element l1 meets the lower edge 5a ofthe bearing.

A jointed wiper structure W is mounted on the end wall of the cellar forapplication to the under surface of the journal and serves to return tothe cellar oil which tends to move outwardly along the lower portion ofthe journal beyond the cellar end wall. This wiper structure isdisclosed in the above-mentioned Patent No. 2,191,468.

The lubricating device includes pump struc-- ture indicated enerally atP and a distributor indicated generally at D, but these elements do notin themselves constitute the present invention but are indicated tocomplete the showing of parts which operate in combination with thestructure previously described to assure an adequate supply of lubricantto the journal and its bearing without necessitating unduly frequentaddition of lubricant to the cellar or its reservoir.

With the present device, the journal is provided with sufficientlubricant at all times, and the increased amount of lubricant pumped tothe journal, due to the generally increased speed of operating trains,is taken advantage of to maintain a greater quantity of oil between thejournal and its bearing without undue loss of oil. The increased supplyof oil not only lubricates the journal and bearing and prevents wear,but also cushions the journal in its bearing, preventing pounding of thebox when there is clearance between the journal and the bearing-andbefore the bearing has worn to a close fit on the journal.

While some of the elements of this combination may be used irrespectiveof whether all of the other elements are present, it is preferable toretain all of these elements to assure adequate and economicallubrication, and I contemplate exclusive use of the described parts,separately or together, or any modification of the same which comewithin the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicylindrical downwardlypresented concave journal engaging face provided near one end with aperipheral recess extending from near one lower side edge of the bearingto near the opposite lower side edge of the bearing whereby lubricantbetween the bearing and a journal to which it is applied will berelieved of pressure as it moves longitudinally of the bearing andreaches the recess, the peripheral recess terminating above the loweredge of the bearing in an upwardly facingledge having an upper faceextending substantially throughout the width of the recess and inclinedinwardly and downwardly from the end of the bearing to drain surpluslubricant awayfrom the end of the bearing, and means to removesurpluslubricant from said recess.

2. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicylindrical downwardlyconcave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheralrecess terminating at points spaced from the lower side edges of thebearing whereby lubricant between the bearing and a journal to which itis applied will be relieved of pressure as it moves along the bearingand reaches the recess, there being a peripheral groove in said journalengaging face spaced from said recess inwardly from the end of thebearing, said groove extending downwardly to the lower edges ofv thebearing, the peripheral recess terminating above the lower edge of thebearing in an upwardly facing ledge a substantial portion of which isinclined inwardly and downwardly away from the end of the bearing andmerges with said groove to return surplus lubricant to the lower portionof said groove.

3. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicyl'indrioal downwardlyconcave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheral'recess terminating at points spaced from the lower side edges of thebearing whereby lubricant between the bearing and a journal to which itis applied will be relieved of pressure as it moves along the bearingand reaches the recess, there being a ledge at the lower end of therecess inclined for the most part downwardly and inwardly from the endof the bearing to drain surplus lubricant away from the end of thebearing, the

corner between the outer end of the ledge and r applied will be relievedof pressure as it moves 7 along the bearing and reaches the recess, aledge at the lower end of said recess projecting outwardly from thejournal-opposing face of the recess to wipe lubricant from the endportion of the journal, there being a groove in said face adjacent saidledge, said groove and a portion of said ledge being inclined downwardlyand inwardly to drain lubricant accumulating on the ledge away from theend of the bearing, and means to remove surplus lubricant from saidrecess. V

5. A structure as described in claim 4 in which the corner between theoutwardly projecting ledge and the end face of the bearing is bevelleddownwardly and outwardly to distribute a small portion of the lubricantwiped by the ledge to the outer end face of the bearing.

6. A hearing as described in claim 4 which includes a transverse groovein the journal engaging surface of the bearing spaced from theperipheral recess inwardly from the end of the bearing, there being anadditional groove in the journal opposing face of the recess above theledge and extending downwardly and inwardly from the end of the journaland leading to said transverse groove.

7. A railway axle journal bearing with a semicylindrical downwardlyconcave journal engaging face provided near one end with a peripheralrecess terminating at points spaced from the lower tween the bearing anda journal to which it is REFERENCES CITED The following references areof record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,070,257 Hinkley Aug. 12, 19132,088,700 Hennessey Aug. 3:, 1937 2,293,295 I-Iennessy Aug. 18, 1942

